Index Ar-As

N. al-Arabi

Arabi, Nabil al-, al-Arabi also spelled Elaraby (b. March 15, 1935, Egypt), foreign minister of Egypt (2011) and secretary-general of the Arab League (2011-16). He was ambassador to India (1981-83) and permanent representative to the United Nations (1991-99).

Aracaty, João Carlos Augusto de Oeynhausen (Gravenburg), (visconde e) marquês de (b. Oct. 12, 1776, Lisbon, Portugal - d. May 28, 1838, Mozambique), foreign minister of Brazil (1827-29) and governor-general of Mozambique (1837-38). He was also governor of Ceará (1803-07), Mato Grosso (1807-18), and São Paulo (1819-21) and navy minister of Brazil (1828). He was given the title of visconde de Aracaty (Oct. 12, 1824) and marquês de Aracaty (Oct. 12, 1826) by Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. He renounced his condition as a Brazilian subject in 1831 in order to be able to take up Portuguese appointments.

Arafat

Arafat, Yasir (Yasir also spelled Yasser), byname of `Abd ar-Rahman `Abd ar-Ra`uf al-Qudwa al-Husayni, also known as Abu Ammar ("the builder") (b. Aug. 4/24, 1929, Cairo, Egypt - d. Nov. 11, 2004, Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris, France), president of the Palestinian Authority (1994-2004). While in Egypt he joined the Union of Palestinian Students, of which he was president in 1952-56. Commissioned into the Egyptian army, he served in the Suez campaign of 1956. He was a co-founder of Fatah (Jan. 1, 1965), which became the most powerful of the groups making up the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Fatah launched guerrilla raids and terrorist attacks into Israel. But Israel emerged victorious in the Six-Day War of 1967, capturing the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, thus occupying all of Palestine. On Feb. 4, 1969, Arafat was elected chairman of the PLO executive committee. In the 1970s he increasingly turned towards political activity rather than confrontation with Israel. In November 1974 he became the first representative of a non-governmental organization to address a plenary session of the UN General Assembly. In 1982 he became the target of criticism from various Syrian-supported factions within the PLO and from the Syrians. The criticisms escalated after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon forced Arafat to abandon his Beirut headquarters at the end of August 1982 and set up a new base in Tunisia. In 1993 he recognized Israel's right to exist in exchange for gradual implementation of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He was the corecipient with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and foreign minister Shimon Peres of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. In July 1994 he returned to Palestine to become president of the Palestinian Authority, which governed the autonomous Palestinian areas; an election in 1996 confirmed him in that post. A Swiss forensic report in 2013 "moderately supported the proposition" that his death was the consequence of poisoning with radioactive polonium.

Aramburu (Cilveti), Pedro Eugenio (b. May 21, 1903, Río Cuarto, Córdoba province, Argentina - d. May 31/June 1, 1970, Timote, Buenos Aires province), provisional president of Argentina (1955-58). A prominent general in the Argentine army, he was a leading critic of the regime of Pres. Juan Perón. Backed by a group of similarly disillusioned army officers, he helped launch a successful military coup on Sept. 21, 1955, that was later dubbed the "Liberating Revolution." Perón fled into exile, and a military junta replaced him. On November 13, Aramburu formally assumed the presidency of Argentina, but promised to only be a temporary "provisional" leader. Nevertheless, he quickly embarked on a very ambitious campaign of strict "de-Peronization" of Argentina. The former president and first lady were denounced and vilified by the state-controlled media, and their numerous portraits and monuments were all ordered to be destroyed. The Peronist party was banned, and members of the past administration were rounded up and imprisoned. After being in power for over 2 years Aramburu finally came through on his promise, and announced free elections would be held on Feb. 23, 1958. The president declared he would not run, and after Arturo Frondizi was elected, he formally resigned from the army. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1963. He was abducted on May 29, 1970, and killed some days later, by a radical Peronist group, allegedly for his part in the execution of 27 Peronist leaders after an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1956.

Arana Osorio, Carlos Manuel (b. July 17, 1918, Barberena, Santa Rosa department, Guatemala - d. Dec. 6, 2003, Guatemala City), president of Guatemala (1970-74). Before his presidency he commanded a military base in Zacapa in eastern Guatemala, leading a repressive campaign against rebel guerrillas, and served as ambassador to Nicaragua (1968-69). He ran for president with the ultraconservative National Liberation Movement and, once elected, expanded government efforts to bring armed rebels under control while also persecuting student radicals, workers' groups, and political opponents. A state of siege was declared, suspending civil liberties, during his first year in office. A document extending it indefinitely included the government's first official acknowledgment that the country was embroiled in a civil war. The decades-long struggle cost 200,000 lives before peace accords were reached in 1996.

Aranha, Oswaldo (Euclydes de Souza) (b. Dec. 15, 1894, Alegrete, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil - d. Jan. 27, 1960, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), acting president of Rio Grande do Sul (1930), foreign minister of Brazil (1938-44), and president of the UN General Assembly (1947-48). He was also minister of justice and interior (1930-31), finance (1931-34, 1953-54), and agriculture (1954) and ambassador to the United States (1934-37).

Aráoz (Farajet), Julio César (b. Aug. 7, 1948, Capilla del Monte, Córdoba, Argentina), federal interventor in Tucumán (1991). He was also Argentine minister of health (1991-93) and secretary of planning for the prevention of drug abuse and the fight against drug trafficking (1996-98).

M. Aráoz

Aráoz (Fernández), Mercedes (Rosalba) (b. Aug. 5, 1961, Lima, Peru), economy and finance minister (2009-10) and prime minister (2017-18) of Peru. She has also been minister of foreign trade and tourism (2006-09) and production (2009), second vice president (2016-18), and first vice president (2018- ).

Arashi, Abdul Karim Abdullah al- (b. 1934, Sana, Yemen - d. June 10?, 2006, Saudi Arabia), chairman of the Presidential Council of Yemen (Sana) (1978). After the 1962 revolution, he became more politically prominent and participated in various military campaigns in defense of the revolution. He was speaker of the Constituent People's Assembly when he became temporary head of state following President Ahmad al-Ghashmi's assassination in 1978. Thereafter he became vice president in addition to his speaker's post. He was appointed finance minister twice and while holding this post established the state's first budget. He also was minister of local administration and in this capacity reformulated the local governance law. In 1988, he unanimously was elected president of the new Majlis al-Shura. Two years later, on the occasion of Yemeni reunification, he was elected a member of the Presidential Council. In 1997, he was appointed a consultant to the president.

Araud, Gérard (Roger) (b. Feb. 20, 1953, Marseille, France), French diplomat. He has been ambassador to Israel (2003-06) and the United States (2014- ) and permanent representative to the United Nations (2009-14).

Araujo (Carrillo), Antonio Martín (b. Aug. 6, 1905, Trujillo, Venezuela - d. Aug. 19, 1983, Caracas, Venezuela), president of Trujillo (1945-47). He was also Venezuelan minister of communications (1947-48) and health and social assistance (1948-50) and ambassador to the United States (1951-52), the United Arab Republic (1959-64), and Canada (1964-69).

Araújo (Perdomo), Fernando (b. 1955), foreign minister of Colombia (2007-08). He was development minister in 1998-99. He was kidnapped by FARC rebels in Cartagena on Dec. 4, 2000. After six years as a hostage he escaped on Dec. 31, 2006, in the middle of a military attack on the guerrilla camp where he was held. He wandered beneath a burning tropical sun for five days before finding help. Less than two months later, he was named foreign minister after the resignation of María Consuelo Araújo (no relation).

Araújo (Castro), María Consuelo (b. 1971, Valledupar, Colombia), foreign minister of Colombia (2006-07). Earlier she was culture minister (2002-06). She is the niece of Consuelo Araújo Noguera, another former culture minister (2000-01), who was kidnapped and murdered in September 2001. In 2007 she resigned as foreign minister, following the arrest of her brother, Sen. Álvaro Araújo Castro, for alleged connections to illegal right-wing paramilitary forces and the implications of her father (Álvaro Araújo Noguera, agriculture minister in 1976-77) and cousin (Hernando Molina Araújo, governor of Cesar department) in similar criminal activity.

Araújo Gaviria, Alfonso (b. July 28, 1902, Bogotá, Colombia - d. Feb. 4, 1961, New York City), war minister (1933-34), interior minister (1939-40), and finance minister (1942-43) of Colombia. He was also minister of public works (1931-33) and education (1938-39), minister to Venezuela (1937-38), ambassador to Brazil (1944-46), and permanent representative to the United Nations (1957-61).

Arbenz (Guzmán), Jacobo (b. Sept. 14, 1913, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala - d. Jan. 27, 1971, Mexico City, Mexico), president of Guatemala (1951-54). As a young army colonel he joined a revolutionary junta that overthrew longtime dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944. The junta handed power soon after to a constitutionally elected government. Arbenz became defense minister under Pres. Juan José Arévalo in 1949 and in 1950 he was elected president with 65% of the vote. He deepened the land reform begun by the Arévalo government. Uncultivated portions of large plantations were expropriated and distributed to landless peasants. This mainly affected the powerful U.S.-based United Fruit Company, which convinced the U.S. government of a Communist threat in Guatemala. Arbenz, who also broadened Guatemala's relations with Communist countries and included known Communists in his administration, won the name in the U.S. of the "Red Colonel." Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a fervent anti-Communist, launched a campaign to overthrow the Arbenz government. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, working in Honduras and El Salvador, organized a counterrevolutionary army of exiles led by Col. Carlos Castillo Armas; additionally, psychological warfare misinformed and frightened the population. When the capital was threatened, the size of the invading force was overestimated, and little resistance was offered; Arbenz was forced to resign (June 27, 1954) and leave the country. Castillo, who soon became president, quickly reversed Arbenz' reforms, while Arbenz began a tortuous life as an exile, first living in Mexico, then in Switzerland, France, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union; in 1957 he moved to Uruguay, in 1960 to Cuba, and in 1970 again to Mexico.

Arbnori, Pjetër (Filip) (b. Jan. 18, 1935, Durrës, Albania - d. July 7, 2006, Naples, Italy), chairman of the People's Assembly (1992-97) and acting president (1992) of Albania. During the Communist regime, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1961 for creating a secret anti-Communist group that tried to topple the regime. Another 10 years were later added to the sentence, but he was released after 28 years in 1989, two years before the regime collapsed.

Arbour, Louise (b. Feb. 10, 1947, Montreal, Que.), Canadian jurist. She served as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (1996-99), during which time she indicted Slobodan Milosevic, among others, for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his part in atrocities committed in Kosovo. Milosevic's indictment was the first of a serving head of state. Arbour became a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada on Sept. 15, 1999. She was nominated on Feb. 20, 2004, to be UN high commissioner for human rights and assumed the office on July 1. She stepped down after one four-year term that sparked both controversy and praise. She was critical of many governments, ranging from Zimbabwe to China and Russia. She condemned the use of secret U.S. detention centres for terror suspects and said the American-led "war on terror" was eroding the worldwide ban on torture. She drew fire for her criticism of Israel in the wake of its 34-day conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. She said Israel was no less culpable than Hezbollah when it came to the deaths of civilians, saying that in Israel's case "you may not have an intent but you have recklessness [in which] civilian casualties are foreseeable." She also said that war crimes charges might be warranted against Israel and Hezbollah, which prompted a stinging condemnation from Israel's UN ambassador for what he called a "misguided and deeply disturbing statement." In 2017 she became UN special representative for international migration.

Arbuzov, Serhiy (Hennadiyovych) (b. March 24, 1976, Donetsk, Ukrainian S.S.R.), acting prime minister of Ukraine (2014). He was chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine in 2010-12 and first deputy prime minister in 2012-14.

Arbuzov, Valery (Petrovich) (b. Oct. 1, 1939), chairman of the Executive Committee (1990-91) and head of the administration (1991-97) of Kostroma oblast.

Arcaya (Rivero), Ignacio Luis (b. May 3, 1912, Coro, Falcón state, Venezuela - d. 1990), foreign minister of Venezuela (1959-60). He was president of the Chamber of Deputies in 1963.

Arce (Arce), José (b. Oct. 15, 1881, Lobería, Buenos Aires province, Argentina - d. July 27/28, 1968, Buenos Aires), president of the UN General Assembly (1948). He was also Argentinian ambassador to China (1945-46) and permanent representative to the United Nations (1946-49).

Archibald, V(ivian) Inez (b. Feb. 1, 1945, West End, Tortola, British Virgin Islands), acting governor of the British Virgin Islands (2010). She was speaker of the Legislative Council in 2003-07 and became deputy governor in 2008.

Ardalan, Ali Gholi (b. Oct. 15, 1901, Tehran, Iran - d. Aug. 3, 1986), foreign minister of Iran (1955-58). He was also minister to Turkey (1946-48), permanent representative to the United Nations (1950-55), minister of industry and mines (1955), ambassador to the United States (1958-60), the Soviet Union (1961-63), and West Germany (1963-65), and minister of the imperial court (1978-79).

J. Ardern

Ardern, Jacinda (Kate Laurell) (b. July 26, 1980, Hamilton, N.Z.), prime minister of New Zealand (2017- ); daughter of Ross Ardern. At 37 she became New Zealand's youngest head of government since 1856. In 2018 she took six weeks' leave as she was about to become only the second non-monarch national leader to give birth while in office (the first being Benazir Bhutto in 1990).

Areilza (y Martínez de Rodas), José María de, (from 1932) conde de Motrico (b. Aug. 3, 1909, Portugalete, Vizcaya province, País Vasco, Spain - d. Feb. 22, 1998, Madrid), foreign minister of Spain (1975-76). He was mayor of Bilbao in 1937-38. During the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, Areilza served as Spanish ambassador to Argentina (1947-50), the United States (1954-60), and France (1960-64). He was a close adviser to Don Juan, heir to the Spanish throne, but Franco favoured Don Juan's son, Juan Carlos, in reestablishing the monarchy. Don Juan abdicated in favour of his son in 1969 and Juan Carlos eventually became king upon Franco's death in 1975. Areilza became foreign minister and was credited with spreading Spain's new democratic image abroad. He retired from politics after being elected to Spain's prestigious Royal Language Academy in 1987.

Arena

E. Arenales

Arena, Marie (b. Dec. 17, 1966, Mons, Belgium), minister-president of the French community of Belgium (2004-08). In 2008-09 she was federal minister of pensions and integration.

Arenales Catalán, Emilio (b. May 10, 1922, Guatemala City, Guatemala - d. April 17, 1969, Guatemala City), foreign minister of Guatemala (1966-69) and president of the UN General Assembly (1968-69); brother of Jorge Arenales Catalán. He was also permanent representative to the UN (1955-58).

Arenas (Merino), Antonio (b. July 13, 1808, Lima, Peru - d. Dec. 27, 1891, Lima), foreign minister (1858-59, 1885-86), prime minister (1868, 1876, 1885-86), and acting head of state (1885-86) of Peru. He was also minister of interior, police, and public works (1862-63, 1868) and justice, education, and worship (1876) and president of the Supreme Court (1876-77, 1885-86, 1889-91).

Arenas (Zuñiga), Germán (b. May 1870, Lima, Peru - d. April 10, 1948), prime minister of Peru (1918-19, 1931-32); grandson of Antonio Arenas. He was also minister of interior and police (1907-08, 1917-18, 1918-19), finance and commerce (1918), and development and public works (1931-32) and president of the Supreme Court (1943-44).

Arens, Moshe, originally Mose Arensas (b. Dec. 27, 1925, Kaunas, Lithuania), Israeli politician. His family emigrated to the United States from Lithuania in 1939, and he eventually became a U.S. citizen. When the Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1948, he went to Israel, where he joined the Irgun, the right-wing Zionist guerrilla force led by Menachem Begin. He eventually entered the Knesset and became chairman of the committee on foreign affairs and defense. After serving (1981-83) as ambassador to the United States, he became (February 1983) defense minister under Begin, replacing Ariel Sharon, who was forced to resign. Like Sharon, Arens was regarded as a hardliner in Israel's relations with the Arab world. Following the formation of a national unity government by the Labour Party and the Likud bloc in 1984, Arens became a minister without portfolio. In 1988-90 he served as foreign minister, and in 1990-92 he was again defense minister. In a surprise comeback, seven years after retiring from politics, Arens challenged his protégé Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1999 Likud party primaries to determine its candidate for prime minister in the general election. Arens, portraying himself as the best person to bring a fragmented party together, won only 18% of the vote. He then became defense minister the third time, but months later the Likud government lost the election.

Arévalo (Bermejo), Juan José (b. Sept. 10, 1904, Taxisco, Guatemala - d. Oct. 6, 1990, Guatemala City, Guatemala), president of Guatemala (1945-51). He served in the Ministry of Education in 1936. Following the overthrow of the military dictatorship of Jorge Ubico, Arévalo was elected president in 1944 with 85% of the vote. He favoured what he called a "spiritual socialism," a sense of cooperation and concern for the common welfare. His government was characterized by its support for culture, its promotion of pluralistic democracy, the enactment of a labour and social security code, and encouragement of a free union movement. He began reforms in health care and education and promoted new industry and agriculture. In foreign policy he reopened the dispute over British Honduras and refused to recognize Anastasio Somoza's Nicaragua, Francisco Franco's Spain, and Rafael Trujillo's Dominican Republic. Although he enjoyed wide popularity, the traditional elite classes opposed him, and he had to deal with numerous revolts, particularly one in July 1949 following the assassination of Col. Francisco Javier Arana. In 1948 a bitter battle ensued with the United Fruit Company, which ignored the provisions of the labour code. Nevertheless he was able to survive and hand over power to an elected successor, Jacobo Arbenz. He was appointed ambassador at large in 1951. After Arbenz was overthrown in 1954, Arévalo lived in exile in Venezuela and later Mexico. In March 1963 he clandestinely entered Guatemala and planned to run for president; the prospect of his return to power triggered a military coup by Col. Enrique Peralta Azurdia and Arévalo went back to Mexico. In 1969 he was named ambassador to Chile, and he was ambassador to France in 1970-72.

Argaña (Ferraro), Luis María (del Corazón de Jesús Dionisio) (b. Oct. 9, 1932, Asunción, Paraguay - d. March 23, 1999, Asunción), Paraguayan politician. He first rose to prominence in the political hierarchy as a close collaborator of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, whose brutal 35-year dictatorship ended in 1989. In 1967 he was one of the architects of Stroessner's tailor-made constitution. His steady rise through the ranks took him to the presidency of the Supreme Court (1983-88). Nicknamed "The Prince" because he was Stroessner's favourite underling, he was the principal candidate to succeed the general as president. But his chances were dashed when the dictator was overthrown and fled to exile in Brazil. Argaña instead served as foreign minister (1989-90) under Gen. Andrés Rodríguez before becoming a leading voice against government corruption. A convincing orator, he nevertheless lacked a popular touch as he did not speak the local Guaraní language, which meant he could not make contact with the country's poor. He was beaten by former army chief Lino Oviedo for the Colorado Party's presidential nomination in 1998. But Oviedo was disqualified from the presidential contest by a 10-year jail sentence for a 1996 coup attempt. Oviedo ally Raúl Cubas stepped in and won, and Argaña automatically became his deputy. He clashed with Cubas over the latter's decision to free Oviedo. Argaña stood by as Congress readied to put Cubas on trial on charges of violating the constitution by ordering Oviedo's freedom. The vice president seemed closer than ever to the top job when his long career was brought to a bloody halt by gunmen who shot him dead. He was riddled with 10 bullets when his jeep was attacked in the morning hours in a central district of the capital.

Arguedas Mendieta, Antonio (b. June 13, 1928, La Paz, Bolivia - d. Feb. 22, 2000, La Paz), interior minister of Bolivia (1966-68). He was recruited by the U.S. CIA in 1965, and as minister contributed to the repression of the guerrillas led by Che Guevara, who was captured and killed in 1967. But in 1968 he smuggled a copy of Guevara's guerrilla diary to Cuba, embarrassing the Bolivian government, then fled the country, living in Chile and Cuba, but later returning. His political views seemed erratic, and he reportedly died when a bomb he was carrying exploded; police claimed he was behind a spate of bombings by a right-wing group.

Argüello, Jorge (Martín Arturo) (b. April 20, 1956, Buenos Aires, Argentina), Argentine diplomat. He was permanent representative to the United Nations (2007-11) and ambassador to the United States (2012-13) and Portugal (2013-15).

Arias (Arias), Ricardo Alberto (b. Sept. 11, 1939, Panama City, Panama), foreign minister of Panama (1996-98); son of Ricardo Arias Espinosa. He was also ambassador to the United States (1994-96) and permanent representative to the United Nations (2004-09).

Arias Espinosa, Ricardo (Manuel) (b. April 5, 1912, Washington, D.C. - d. March 15, 1993, Panama City, Panama), second vice president (1952-55), foreign minister (1955), and president (1955-56) of Panama. He was also ambassador to the United States (1964-68).

Arias Madrid, Arnulfo (b. Aug. 15, 1901, Penonomé, Colombia [now in Coclé province, Panama] - d. Aug. 10, 1988, Miami, Fla.), president of Panama (1940-41, 1949-51, 1968); brother of Harmodio Arias Madrid. He became interested in politics during the late 1920s, participated in a revolution in 1931, and founded the party that brought his brother to the presidency in 1932. He served as minister of public works and agriculture (1935-36) and then as ambassador to France and Britain. In 1940 he was elected president himself. He instituted his country's social security system, gave the vote to women, strengthened labour laws, forced foreign businessmen to transfer their companies to Panamanian ownership, and divested black West Indians in Panama of their citizenship. When he scrapped the constitution and extended his presidential term in office to six years, he was ousted in a military coup (probably supported by the United States, who were worried about his connections to the Axis powers and his opposition to U.S. requests for defense installations) and went into exile until 1945. Elected president again in 1948, the election results were thrown out and only recognized eighteen months later. During his second term he again tried to revoke the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly and the Supreme Court, and was finally deposed by the police. Denied political rights from 1951 to 1960, he lost presidential elections in 1964 apparently due to fraud. Four years later, his victory was so overwhelming that it had to be recognized, but he served only 11 days before being deposed by the military. He narrowly lost the 1984 election in what many again claimed was fraud. In exile in Miami, he opposed the military regimes of Gen. Omar Torrijos and Gen. Manuel Noriega.

H. Arias M.

Arias Madrid, Harmodio (b. July 3, 1886, Río Grande, Colombia [now in Coclé province, Panama] - d. Dec. 23, 1962, aboard plane en route from U.S. to Panama), president of Panama (1932-36). Prominent in Panama's political affairs since 1912, he represented his country in various posts. In 1920, he was named delegate to the first assembly of the League of Nations. That year also he was elected a member of the Court of Arbitration at The Hague. In 1921, he was named minister plenipotentiary to Argentina, and in 1931 he was briefly minister to the United States. In Washington, he attended Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's press conferences, and later, when he became president, he started the practice in Panama, becoming the first Latin American president to hold press conferences. He was one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in 1931 which overthrew the government of Florencio Harmodio Arosemena. Arias' movement Acción Communal had a primarily mestizo middle class following, and its mood was anti-oligarchy and anti-Yankee. Arias was the first Panamanian president to institute relief efforts for the isolated and impoverished countryside. He later established the University of Panama, which became the focal point for the political articulation of middle-class interests and nationalistic zeal. President Roosevelt's visit to Panama in the summer of 1934 prepared the way for opening negotiations on important matters. A Panamanian mission arrived in Washington in November, and discussions on a replacement for the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty continued through 1935. On March 2, 1936, the Hull-Alfaro Treaty was signed, which provided a new context for relations between the two countries, abrogating the 1903 treaty guarantee of the republic's independence and the concomitant right of intervention.

Arias Mendoza, (José) Rubén, interior minister of Paraguay (1998-99).

C. Arias

Arias Navarro, Carlos, marqués de Arias Navarro (b. Dec. 11, 1908, Madrid, Spain - d. Nov. 27, 1989, Madrid), prime minister of Spain (1974-76). He began his service with the Ministry of Justice in 1929. Closely allied with Gen. Francisco Franco, Arias was imprisoned by Republican forces at Málaga at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). He was freed when Franco's forces captured the city and became a public prosecutor with a reputation for toughness against his Republican adversaries. Later he served as governor of the province of León (1944-49), governor of Navarre (1949), director general of security (1957-65), and mayor of Madrid (1965-73). In June 1973 he was made minister of the interior, and he was appointed premier in December 1973 after the assassination of Premier Luis Carrero Blanco. Arias was the only civilian premier appointed by Franco. It was Arias who broke the news of Franco's death to the public in 1975. King Juan Carlos initially retained him as premier, but Arias opposed a complete break with the past and resigned at the king's wish in 1976. On the day after leaving office, he was created marqués de Arias Navarro.

Ó. Arias

Arias Sánchez, Óscar (Rafael de Jesús) (b. Sept. 13, 1941, Heredia, Costa Rica), president of Costa Rica (1986-90, 2006-10). In the early 1960s he joined the social-democratic National Liberation Party (PLN). He was financial adviser to Pres. José Figueres Ferrer in 1970-72 and minister of national planning and political economy in 1972-77. He was elected to congress in 1978 and elected secretary-general of the PLN in 1979, but resigned those posts in 1981 in order to organize the successful presidential campaign of Luis Alberto Monge Álvarez. In 1986 Arias himself won presidential elections. The campaign was dominated by the issue of Costa Rica's proclaimed neutrality in Central American affairs, a policy to which Arias was strongly committed. He was not a supporter of the Communist government in neighbouring Nicaragua, but his pledge to curb the activities of the anti-Sandinista contra forces in Costa Rica proved more appealing to the electorate than the virulently anti-Communist proclamations of his principal election rival, Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier. Arias took measures to cope with Costa Rica's heavy foreign indebtedness and other economic problems, but his chief concern was the restoration of peace and political stability in strife-torn Central America. In February 1987 he proposed a regional peace plan for the Central American countries that called for ceasefires between government and rebel forces, an end of outside military aid, amnesty for political prisoners, and free elections in those countries. On Aug. 7, 1987, Arias and the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua signed an accord based on his plan. In October of that year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts. Elected to a second term in 2006, he brought Costa Rica into a Central American free trade agreement with the U.S.

J. Arias

Arias Stella, Javier (b. Aug. 2, 1924, Lima), foreign minister of Peru (1980-83). He was also public health minister (1963-65, 1966-68) and permanent representative to the United Nations (1983-85).

Arif, Abdul Rahman (Muhammad), or `Abd al-Rahman `Arif (b. 1916 [other sources say 1918], Baghdad, Iraq - d. Aug. 24, 2007, Amman, Jordan), president of Iraq (1966-68). In 1963 he was chosen by his younger brother, Pres. Abdul Salam Arif, as army chief of staff. Three years later, the brother died in a plane crash and army officers supported by Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser chose the elder Arif to become Iraq's new president. But in the early hours of July 17, 1968, as Arif slept, Defense Minister Hardan al-Tikriti reportedly entered the palace and phoned Arif to tell him he was no longer president. He was hustled onto a plane to London the next morning and made his way to Istanbul, where he spent 11 years before he was allowed to return. Ba`th Party leader Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr became president after the bloodless coup. Two of Arif's closest assistants betrayed him and conspired with the Ba`th Party in the coup. Afterward, one was named prime minister and the other defense minister. After Arif's return to Iraq in 1979, he kept a low profile, leaving the country only once, to perform the Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 1981, until the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, following which he settled in Jordan.

Aristide, Jean-Bertrand (b. July 15, 1953, Port-Salut, southern Haiti), president of Haiti (1991, 1994-96, 2001-04). In the late 1970s, a time of increasing militancy against the brutal regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Aristide urged change and often found himself at odds with his superiors in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1986, the year Duvalier was driven from power, Aristide survived the first of many assassination attempts. In 1990, when a notorious Duvalierist announced his candidacy for president, progressive-centre forces united to urge Aristide to run for the office. He was elected in Haiti's first free democratic election on Dec. 16, 1990, with an overwhelming 67% of the vote. Aristide's campaign motto, "Lavalas" (Creole for "flood"), became the name for a diverse coalition of parties that symbolized hope for the Haitian people (80% of whom earned less than $150 a year). In his seven months as president in 1991, Aristide proposed raising the minimum wage, initiated a literacy campaign, dismantled the repressive system of rural section chiefs, and oversaw a drastic reduction in human rights violations. A coup on Sept. 30, 1991, led by the military and financed by members of Haiti's small elite, declared that such reforms would not be tolerated. After three years of exile, a U.S. invasion allowed him to return and resume his presidency on Oct. 15, 1994. The economy was in shambles, infrastructure almost nonexistent, and more than 4,000 people had been killed. Barred constitutionally from immediate reelection, he stepped down in 1996. The old Lavalas coalition fractured, and in November 1996 he launched a new political party, Fanmi Lavalas (Lavalas Family). In 2000 he was again elected president, although there were charges of fraud. A major rebellion in 2004 forced him to resign and go into exile again (Central African Republic, Jamaica, South Africa). He returned to Haiti on March 18, 2011.

Aristov, Boris (Ivanovich) (b. Sept. 13, 1925, Kostroma, Russian S.F.S.R.), Soviet politician. He was first secretary of the party committee of Leningrad city (1971-78), ambassador to Poland (1978-83) and Finland (1988-92), and minister of external trade (1985-88).

Arkan, byname of Zeljko Raznatovic (b. April 17, 1952, Brezice, Slovenia - d. Jan. 15, 2000, Belgrade, Serbia), Serb paramilitary leader. A notorious paramilitary who struck fear into hearts across the Balkans, he was also a convicted bank robber and a former politician believed to have once had close ties to Slobodan Milosevic's ruling circle. He was the founder and president (1993-2000) of the Party of Serbian Unity. He was indicted in 1997 by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity, including alleged atrocities in Croatia in 1991 and in the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He denied the charges. He was also wanted by the international police body Interpol for a series of bank robberies across western Europe. He was slain by assassins in a Belgrade hotel lobby who fired at least 38 bullets at close range.

Arlooktoo, Goo (Mosa) (b. Nov. 28, 1963, Lake Harbour, Baffin island, N.W.T. - d. April 30, 2002, Iqaluit, Nunavut), acting premier of the Northwest Territories (1998). He won the seat of Baffin South in the Northwest Territories legislature in October 1995. He served as justice minister and deputy premier in 1995-99 and acted briefly as premier when Don Morin resigned in the midst of a conflict-of-interest scandal. In 1999 he sought a spot in the legislature of the new territory of Nunavut, but failed to win a seat in his home riding in the first Nunavut election.

Armacost, Michael H(ayden) (b. April 15, 1937, Cleveland, Ohio), acting U.S. secretary of state (1989). He was also ambassador to the Philippines (1982-84) and Japan (1989-93) and president of the Brookings Institution (1995-2002).

Armengol (Socias), Francina, byname of Francesca Lluch Armengol Socias (b. Aug. 11, 1971, Inca, Mallorca, Spain), president of the Council of Mallorca (2007-11) and president of the government of Baleares (2015- ).

Armijos (Hidalgo), Ana Lucía (b. Oct. 13, 1949, Quito, Ecuador), interior minister (1998-99) and finance minister (1999) of Ecuador. She was also general manager of the Central Bank (1992-93), president of the Monetary Board (1993-96), and ambassador to Spain (1999-2000).

Arnold, Karl (b. March 21, 1901, Herrlishöfen [now part of Warthausen], near Biberach, Württemberg [now in Baden-Württemberg], Germany - d. June 29, 1958, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, West Germany), minister-president of Nordrhein-Westfalen (1947-56). He was president of the German Bundesrat in 1949-50 and as such acting head of state of West Germany before the election of the first president in 1949.

Arosemena Gómez, Otto (b. July 19, 1925, Guayaquil, Ecuador - d. April 20, 1984, Salinas, Ecuador), president of Ecuador (1966-68); cousin of Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy. His political career began when he was elected a deputy from Guayas province in 1954. By 1955 he was president of the Chamber of Deputies and in 1960 he was elected a senator. After a junta was forced out in March 1966, Arosemena organized his own party, the Coalition of Democratic Institutions. Like many of Ecuador's parties, his faction was a bit to the right of centre, yet in his pronouncements he often adopted a leftist posture. It was a tiny party, and in elections for the 79-member Constituent Assembly in the fall of 1966 it won only three seats. But the major centrist parties - the Conservatives and the Social Christians - found themselves three seats short of a combined majority. A deal was struck, and in return for his three seats Arosemena was elected interim president on Nov. 16, 1966, amid violent demonstrations, chiefly by left-wing students who had supported the Liberal candidate, university lecturer Raúl Clemente Huerta. As president, Arosemena criticized U.S. development aid as inadequate and demanded preferential treatment by the U.S. for Latin-American products. In October 1967, when U.S. Ambassador Wymberley Coerr criticized Ecuador's foreign policy in a speech, Arosemena declared Coerr persona non grata and gave him 48 hours to leave the country. A fiery politician, he served three months in prison for shooting a fellow lawmaker in the leg during a parliamentary debate, and returned to his seat after serving his sentence. His term was due to expire in August 1984 and he did not seek reelection.

Arosemena M.

Arosemena Monroy, Carlos Julio (b. Aug. 24, 1919, Guayaquil, Ecuador - d. March 5, 2004, Guayaquil), president of Ecuador (1961-63); son of Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola. He was chairman of the Chamber of Deputies in 1952 and defense minister in 1952-53. He became vice president in 1960 and acceded to the presidency upon the ouster of Pres. José María Velasco Ibarra. He continued an unpopular economic austerity program implemented by Velasco Ibarra and restored a favourable trade balance. Although he was criticized for his leftist leanings, real opposition to him arose from his immoderate drinking. After two unsuccessful attempts to impeach him, he was overthrown by a military junta and sent into exile in Panama. He later was a deputy in the National Constituent Assembly (1966-67) and in the National Chamber of Representatives (1979-84) and led the Nationalist Revolutionary Party. In 1981 he was arrested on charges of shooting and wounding two Conservative deputies during a heated debate in 1980; he was sentenced to 30 days' correctional detention.

Arosemena T.

Arosemena Tola, Carlos Julio (b. April 12, 1888, Guayaquil, Ecuador - d. Feb. 20, 1952, Guayaquil), president of Ecuador (1947-48). He was the first president of the executive committee of the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Ecuador and director of the Committee on Roads and Waterways. He took office as president to complete the term of Pres. José María Velasco Ibarra after the latter had been forced to resign in a bloodless revolt led by Col. Carlos Mancheno Cajas. He appointed an independent cabinet and held the fairest election in the history of Ecuador, resulting in the election of Pres. Galo Plaza Lasso.

Arouna, Idrissa (b. Nov. 9, 1926), interior minister (1974-75) and defense minister (1976-77) of Niger. He was also minister of public service and labour (1974-75) and education (1975-78) and ambassador to China (1978-82) and West Germany (1982-87).

Arouna, Mounkeila, Nigerien politician. He was minister of mines (1976-81) and hydrology (1976-80), ambassador to France (1981-83) and the United Kingdom (1982-83), and permanent representative to the United Nations (1983-85).

Arraes de Alencar, Miguel (b. Dec. 15, 1916, Araripe, Ceará, Brazil - d. Aug. 13, 2005, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil), governor of Pernambuco (1963-64, 1987-90, 1995-99). He was also mayor of Recife (1960-62) and was chairman of the Brazilian Socialist Party from 1993 to his death.

Arreaza (Montserrat), Jorge (Alberto) (b. June 6, 1973, Caracas, Venezuela), executive vice-president (2013-16) and foreign minister (2017- ) of Venezuela; son-in-law of Hugo Chávez. He was also minister of science and technology (2011-13, 2016-17), higher education (2016-17), and ecological mining development (2017) and vice president for social development and revolution of the missions (2016-17).

Arriola Ramírez, Julio César (b. July 20, 1965), Paraguayan diplomat. He has been chargé d'affaires in Costa Rica (2005-09), ambassador to Canada (2015-17), and permanent representative to the United Nations (2017- ).

Arrocha Ruíz, Melitón Alejandro (b. Sept. 15, 1968, Panama), Panamanian politician. He has been minister of trade and industry (2014-15) and permanent representative to the United Nations (2018- ).

Arron

Arron, Henck (Alphonsus Eugène) (b. April 25, 1936, Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana [now Suriname] - d. Dec. 4, 2000, Alphen aan den Rijn, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands), prime minister (1973-80), finance minister (1973-77), foreign minister (1975-80), and vice president (1988-90) of Suriname. He was elected to the Staten (Suriname legislature) in 1963 as a member of the Suriname National Party, and he became the party's chairman in 1970. Arron formed the National Party Alliance, a coalition of parties that were composed mainly of Creoles (Surinamese of African descent) and that favoured independence from the Netherlands. Arron's coalition won the elections of 1973, and he became prime minister. Arron led independence talks and shocked some in this South American country in 1974 when he predicted Suriname would gain independence within a year - and it did. Suriname was underdeveloped, and its people divided along racial lines; thousands of them fled the country in the months before independence, fearful of racial violence under the new regime. Arron was reelected in 1977, but his efforts to stem economic decline were unsuccessful, and a high unemployment rate was a major cause of his ouster in February 1980, when a coup was staged by discontented junior army officers. Elections in 1987 ended military rule, and under a new constitution Arron became vice president and chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1988, only to have his government again deposed in 1990. A year later, a coalition including his party won elections, but by that time Arron's health was deteriorating and he retired from politics. Just one week before his death, he was given Suriname's highest honour at a ceremony celebrating the 25th anniversary of independence.

Arsala, Hedayat Amin (b. Jan. 12, 1942, Kabul, Afghanistan), foreign minister (1993-94), finance minister and vice chairman of the Interim Administration (2001-02), and vice president (2002-04) of Afghanistan. He was also finance minister in the rebel government of 1989-91, and commerce minister in 2004-06.

Artano, Stéphane (b. March 9, 1973), president of the General Council (2006-07) and Territorial Council (2007- ) of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

Arteaga

Arteaga Serrano (de Fernández de Córdova), (Lupe) Rosalía (b. Dec. 5, 1956, Cuenca, Azuay province, Ecuador), Ecuadoran politician. She was education minister in 1994. In 1996 she became vice president under Pres. Abdalá Bucaram. When Bucaram was deposed by Congress in 1997, she was briefly acting president. A member of the centre-left Authentic Independent Republic Movement, she was a fierce critic of Interim Pres. Fabián Alarcón, and she resigned as vice president in March 1998 to run for president. She won 5% of the vote. In 2004-07 she was secretary-general of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization.

Arthit Ourairat, also spelled Urairat (b. May 9, 1938), foreign minister of Thailand (1990-91). He was also speaker of the House of Representatives (1992) and minister of public health (1993-95) and science, technology, and environment (1999-2001).

Arthuis, Jean (b. Oct. 7, 1944, Saint-Martin-du-Bois, Maine-et-Loire, France), economy and finance minister of France (1995-97). He was also minister of economic development and plan (1995).

C.A. Arthur

Arthur, Chester A(lan) (b. Oct. 5, 1829, North Fairfield, Vt. - d. Nov. 18, 1886, New York City), president of the United States (1881-85). He joined the Republican Party in the 1850s. As a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1880, Arthur worked for the renomination of Ulysses S. Grant for a third term as president. With the triumph of James A. Garfield, Arthur was offered the vice presidency as a conciliatory gesture. His nomination was coldly received by the public, and the impression was widespread that he was too partisan. Acceding to the presidency on Sept. 19, 1881, on the assassination of Garfield, Arthur is said to have been deeply wounded by public apprehension over the prospect of an administration in the hands of so confirmed an adherent of the spoils system. He did replace six of the seven members of Garfield's cabinet with his own appointees, but his appointments were generally unexceptionable, and he displayed an unexpected independence by his veto (1882) of an $18,000,000 rivers and harbours bill that contained ample funds for projects that could be used for political patronage. He particularly confounded his critics and dismayed his friends by his support of the Pendleton Act (1883), which created a federal civil-service system (with appointments and promotions based on merit) applying to a limited number of specified offices. He and his secretary of the navy, William E. Chandler, recommended the appropriations that initiated the rebuilding of the U.S. Navy toward the strength it later achieved at the time of the war with Spain. In 1884 Arthur, who was secretly suffering from an incurable kidney ailment, allowed his name to be presented for the Republican presidential nomination but was defeated by James G. Blaine.

Arthur, Sir Geoffrey (George) (b. March 19, 1920 - d. May 15, 1984), chief political resident of the Persian Gulf (1970-71); knighted 1971. He was also British ambassador to Kuwait (1967-68).

Artukovic, Andrija (b. Nov. 29, 1899, Klobuk, Ottoman Empire [now in Bosnia and Herzegovina] - d. Jan. 16, 1988, Zagreb, Croatia), interior minister (1941-42, 1943) and justice and education minister (1942-43) of Croatia. After living in decades in the United States, he was extradited to Yugoslavia in 1986, convicted of war crimes, and sentenced to death; he won a stay of execution and died of illness in a prison hospital.

Arushanyan, Shmavon (Minasovich) (b. Jan. 2, 1903, Minkend, Yelizavetpol province, Russia [now in Azerbaijan] - d. January 1982, Yerevan, Armenian S.S.R.), chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian S.S.R. (1954-63). He was also first secretary of the party committees of Leninakan city (1939-46) and Yerevan city (1953-54) and minister of automobile transport (1950-53) and automobile transport and highways (1953).

Arutyunov, Grigory (Artemyevich) (b. Nov. 7 [Oct. 25, O.S.], 1900, Telavi, Tiflis province, Russia [now in Georgia] - d. Nov. 9, 1957, Tbilisi, Georgian S.S.R.), first secretary of the Communist Party of the Armenian S.S.R. (1937-53). He was also first secretary of the party committee of Tbilisi city (1934-37).

Arutyunyan, Suren (Gurgenovich) (b. Sept. 5, 1939, Tbilisi, Georgian S.S.R.), first secretary of the Communist Party of the Armenian S.S.R. (1988-90). He was also Armenian ambassador to Belarus (1999-2006).

Aryal, Krishna Raj (b. December 1928, Kathmandu, Nepal), foreign minister of Nepal (1975-79). He was also minister of education (1973-75) and public works, transport, and tourism (1986) and ambassador to France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Israel (1980-84).

Arzilli, Giuseppe (b. Feb. 20, 1941, San Marino), captain-regent of San Marino (1986-87, 1999-2000, 2004-05). He was also ambassador to Switzerland (2008-14).

Arzú

Arzú Irigoyen, Álvaro (Enrique) (b. March 14, 1946, Guatemala City, Guatemala - d. April 27, 2018, Guatemala City), president of Guatemala (1996-2000). He served as mayor of Guatemala City in 1986-90, made an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1990, and became foreign minister on Jan. 14, 1991. He left that post on Sept. 23, 1991, however, to become secretary-general of the conservative National Advancement Party (PAN). Running again for president in 1995, he won the runoff on Jan. 7, 1996, over his rival Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, the surrogate candidate of former military dictator Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt. Backed by a slick election campaign which neutralized his bland image, Arzú won voters to his side with promises to stamp out endemic corruption and fight discrimination against the majority indigenous population. Critics described him as an arrogant bully who hates to be contradicted. In a widely reported incident as mayor of Guatemala City, Arzú once punched a trade unionist during an argument over work conditions. Arzú's victory was seen as a vote in favour of stability in Guatemala, which was crawling towards democracy as it emerged from decades of military rule. His PAN held the majority of seats in the legislature, and his victory created an unusually strong government in Guatemala, where lameduck presidents in the past had to buy votes to pass legislation. Arzú moved swiftly to push ahead with peace talks with Marxist guerrillas to end a brutal 35-year civil war. In March 1996 the government and the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity agreed to a temporary ceasefire. On December 4 they signed a permanent ceasefire in Oslo, and on December 29, in Guatemala City, they signed the Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace, which thus ended the conflict. In 2003 he was again elected mayor of Guatemala City (taking office 2004); he died in the post.

Arzumanyan, Alexander (b. Dec. 24, 1959, Yerevan, Armenian S.S.R.), foreign minister of Armenia (1996-98). He was also ambassador to the United States (1992-93) and permanent representative to the United Nations (1992-96).

Asensio Cabanillas, Carlos (b. Nov. 14, 1896, Madrid, Spain - d. April 28, 1970, Madrid), Spanish high commissioner of Morocco (1940-41) and army minister of Spain (1942-45). He was also chief of the General Staff (1941-42) and captain-general of the Balearic Islands (1945-48).

Asensio Wunderlich, Julio (b. Nov. 5, 1911, Guatemala City, Guatemala), Guatemalan diplomat. He was ambassador to the United States (1970-76) and permanent representative to the United Nations (1976-78).

Ásgeirsson, Ásgeir (b. May 13, 1894, Kóranesi, Iceland - d. Sept. 15, 1972, Reykjavík), president of Iceland (1952-68). After a heated campaign, the former prime minister (1932-34) won the 1952 presidential election. He sat in office for four terms, and was always reelected unopposed. In 1968 he announced that he would not seek reelection.

Ashawi, Muhammad Eid (b. 1929?), foreign minister of Syria (1968-69). He was imprisoned after the 1970 coup and was only released on Jan. 2, 1995.

J. Ashcroft

Ashcroft, John (David) (b. May 9, 1942, Chicago, Ill.), governor of Missouri (1985-93) and U.S. attorney general (2001-05). He was appointed Missouri state auditor in 1973, was elected state attorney general in 1976 and reelected in 1980, and in 1984 he won the first of two terms as governor. He was known for fiscally and socially conservative policies, including restrictions on abortions. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994, he was defeated in 2000 by Mel Carnahan, a deceased candidate whose name remained on the ballot. Nominated by President-elect George W. Bush as attorney general, he faced intense questioning in the Senate, particularly on his attitudes toward blacks and homosexuals and on his ability as a fundamentalist Christian to uphold U.S. law, but he was confirmed by a vote of 58-42. He was at the centre of policy changes adopted by the Department of Justice following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He pressed for passage of the so-called USA PATRIOT Act, which expanded the government's power to detain noncitizens, conduct surveillance and search, and investigate persons suspected of involvement in criminal activity. Some 1,200 people were jailed after the attacks, including immigration violators whose cases were heard in secret, a number of people held as material witnesses, and two U.S. nationals classified as "enemy combatants" and thus denied the legal rights of citizens. He approved giving agents of the FBI permission to monitor people in public areas without evidence that a crime had been committed. His plan for a Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS), whereby workers with access to citizens' homes would be enlisted to report suspicious activity, was widely denounced and had to be substantially modified.

Ashcroft (of Chichester in the County of West Sussex), Michael (Anthony) Ashcroft, Baron (b. March 4, 1946, Chichester, England), Belizean diplomat. He was permanent representative to the United Nations (1998-2000). A billionaire with dual Belize and U.K. nationality, he was also treasurer of the British Conservative Party (1998-2001) and was created a life peer in 2000.

Ashdown

Ashdown (of Norton-sub-Hamdon in the County of Somerset), Paddy Ashdown, Baron, original name Jeremy John Durham Ashdown (b. Feb. 27, 1941, New Delhi, India), British politician. At 18, he joined the Marines, subsequently becoming a commando with the Special Boat Squadron. He served in the Far East during the 1960s and in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. He was recruited by the Foreign Office in 1971 and worked there for four years, first on the Far East desk in London and then at the UN in Geneva as first secretary. In 1976 he abandoned that career and returned to England to pursue a political career as a Liberal. In 1983 he won the West Country constituency of Yeovil from the Conservatives. In 1988 the Liberals and the Social Democratic Party merged and on July 28 he was elected leader of the new party. At the 1992 election, the Liberal Democrats won 18% of the votes, but just 20 of the 651 seats in parliament thanks to Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system. By-election successes and a defection by a disillusioned Conservative raised the figure to 26, with Ashdown adding to his reputation as a foreign affairs expert with trips to Bosnia at the height of the fighting there. When Tony Blair became Labour leader in 1994 and set about moving his party rapidly to the political centre ground the Liberals traditionally occupied, Ashdown responded by abandoning the Liberal claim to be "equidistant" between the Conservatives and Labour, making it clear that if Blair needed him to sustain him in government, he was ready to help. In the 1997 general election, the Liberal Democrats won 46 seats. He stepped down as party leader in 1999, was knighted in 2000 and created a life peer in 2001. In 2002-06 he was international high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ashe, John W(illiam) (b. Aug. 20, 1954, St. John's, Antigua [now Antigua and Barbuda] - d. [weightlifting accident] June 22, 2016, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.), president of the UN General Assembly (2013-14). He was permanent representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the UN (2004-14) and president of the UNICEF Executive Board (2012).

Asheeke, Hinyangerwa (Pius), Namibian diplomat. He was chargé d'affaires at the United Nations and in the United States (1990-91) and ambassador to Germany (1996-2003) and Austria (1997-2003).

Ashida, Hitoshi (b. Nov. 15, 1887, Kyoto, Japan - d. June 20, 1959, Tokyo, Japan), foreign minister (1947-48) and prime minister (1948) of Japan. He was a member of the lower house of the Diet from 1932 to 1940 and previously had been in the Japanese diplomatic service in various European posts. In 1933-40 he was president of the Japan Times, Tokyo's English newspaper. He helped organize the Japanese Liberal Party after World War II and was minister of welfare in the cabinet of Kijuro Shidehara in 1945-46. His own government lasted only a few months before being overthrown amidst charges of bribery.

Ashimov, Bayken (Ashimovich) (b. Aug. 10, 1917, Shabakbay village, Russia [now in Severo-Kazakhstan oblast, Kazakhstan] - d. Feb. 5, 2010, Almaty, Kazakhstan), chairman of the Council of Ministers (1970-84) and chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1984-85) of the Kazakh S.S.R. He was also chairman of the Executive Committee of Karaganda oblast (1961-62, 1964-68) and first secretary of the party committees of Karaganda (1963-64, rural) and Taldy-Kurgan (1968-70) oblasti.

Ashraf, Raja Pervez (b. Dec. 26, 1950, Sanghar, Sindh, Pakistan), prime minister of Pakistan (2012-13). He was also minister of water and power (2008-11).

Ashraff

Ashraff, M(uhammed) H(ussain) M(uhammed) (b. Oct. 23, 1948, Sammanthurai village, Amparai district, Eastern province, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] - d. Sept. 16, 2000, Aranayake area, Kegalle district, Sabaragamuwa province, Sri Lanka), Sri Lankan politician. He formed the National Unity Alliance (NUA) coalition representing all communities in Sri Lanka, and led its main constituent, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), which he founded on Sept. 21, 1981, to represent the country's Muslim minority. In 1994 the SLMC played a constructive "queenmaker" role to install the Chandrika Kumaratunga government in a hung parliament. Ashraff became minister for ports, shipping, and rehabilitation. Later he lost shipping in a reshuffle. In 2000 Ashraff pulled back support of the government after a report in the Daily News quoted D.M. Jayaratne, the general secretary of the People's Alliance, as saying that the NUA was not a partner of the ruling coalition. He was killed along with 14 others when a Sri Lankan air force helicopter crashed into a hilly area in Aranayake, 65 km to the east of the capital Colombo, and exploded. The Mi-17 helicopter was flying between Colombo and Ampara, 210 km to the east, where he was to attend election meetings. Police ruled out the possibility that the helicopter had been shot down by Tamil rebels, saying the probable cause was a technical failure. Just before he boarded the helicopter, he wrote the statement withdrawing his party's legislative support of the government.

Ashton of Upholland, Catherine (Margaret) Ashton, Baroness, byname Cathy Ashton (b. March 20, 1956, Upholland, Lancashire, England), British politician; lord president of the council (2007-08). She was made a life peer in 1999. In 2008-09 she was European Union trade commissioner and in 2009-14 the EU's first high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, a post created by the Lisbon Treaty to replace the previous high representative for common foreign and security policy as well as the foreign affairs commissioner.

Ashurov, Urumbay (Ashurovich) (b. 1903, Fergana, Russia [now in Uzbekistan] - d. [executed] 1938, Stalinabad, Tadzhik S.S.R. [now Dushanbe, Tajikistan]), first secretary of the Communist Party (1937) and chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1937) of the Tadzhik S.S.R. He was also people's commissar of finance of the Uzbek S.S.R. (1929).

Asif

Asif, Khawaja (Muhammad) (b. Aug. 9, 1949, Sialkot, Pakistan), defense minister (2013-17) and foreign minister (2017-18) of Pakistan. He was also chairman of the Privatization Commission (1997-99) and minister for petroleum and natural resources and sports (2008) and water and power (2013-17).

Asim, Mohamed (b. 1960), foreign minister of Maldives (2016- ). He was also high commissioner to Sri Lanka (2004-07, with non-resident accreditation to Pakistan and Bangladesh), the United Kingdom (2007-08), and Bangladesh (2015-16).

Asnaj, Abdullah (Abdul Majid) al-, also spelled Asnag (b. 1933, Aden province, British India [now in Yemen]), foreign minister of Yemen (Sana) (1971, 1974, 1975-79). He was also minister of economy (1971-74) and communications (1974-75). He was arrested in March 1981, but reports of his execution in April 1981 were apparently mistaken; he later lived in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Aspin, Les(lie, Jr.) (b. July 21, 1938, Milwaukee, Wis. - d. May 21, 1995, Washington, D.C.), U.S. defense secretary (1993-94). He worked on the staff of Sen. William Proxmire and managed his successful campaign in 1964. As an Army officer in 1966-68, he served as one of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's "whiz kids" at the Pentagon. He then returned to Wisconsin and in 1970 was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat, campaigning against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Serving on the House Armed Services Committee, he became known for his close scrutiny of military programs. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee (1985-92), he supported the development of the multi-warhead MX missile and U.S. funding for the Nicaraguan contra rebels. Although temporarily removed from his committee chair by his Democratic colleagues in 1987, Aspin weathered the crisis and resumed the post. As Pres. Bill Clinton's embattled defense secretary for 11 months, he gained a reputation for indecisiveness. While attempting to implement Clinton's campaign promise to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military, Aspin developed the "don't ask, don't tell" compromise policy which did not satisfy any of the concerned parties. He broadened the combat role of women and was widely praised for his initiative to restructure the U.S. military in a post-Cold War climate, but he failed to reinforce U.S. troops in Somalia just weeks before 18 U.S. soldiers were killed by forces of leading warlord Muhammad Farah Aydid. Aspin's inaction led to his resignation in December 1993; observers assumed the president had asked him to step down. He continued to serve as secretary until February 1994; in May 1994 he was chosen as chairman of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

N. Aspin

Aspin, Norman (b. Nov. 9, 1922, Darwen, Lancashire, England - d. July 25, 2011, Dacre, Cumbria, England), commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory (1976). He was British high commissioner to Malta in 1976-79.

Assad, Hafez (Ali Sulayman) al-, Arabic in full Abu Sulayman Hafiz `Ali Sulayman al-Asad (b. Oct. 6, 1930, Qardaha, Latakia province, Syria - d. June 10, 2000, Damascus, Syria), prime minister (1970-71) and president (1971-2000) of Syria. He joined the Syrian wing of the Ba`th Party in 1946 as a student activist. During Syria's short-lived union with Egypt (1958-61), Assad served as a military officer in Egypt and with other officers formed an underground military committee which led a Ba`thist revolution in Syria in 1963, whereupon he became commander of the air force. In 1966 he was one of the leaders of a coup that overthrew the moderate leadership of the party, and he became defense minister. The loss of the Golan Heights to Israel in the Six-Day War (June 1967) dealt a blow to him, but he nevertheless became the most powerful figure in the country. In November 1970 he seized control, arresting his last major rival - Salah Jadid, chief of staff of the armed forces - and other members of the government. In 1971 he was elected president. He set about building up the military with Soviet aid. Dissenters were eliminated by arrest, torture, and execution, and a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Hamah in 1982 was violently quelled at a cost of some 20,000 lives. A new alliance with Egypt culminated in a surprise attack on Israel in October 1973; the Syrians penetrated deep into the Golan before being pushed back by Israeli troops. In 1976, he dispatched several divisions to Lebanon and secured their permanent presence there as part of a peacekeeping force sponsored by the Arab League. Because of a long-standing hostility toward the Iraqi wing of the Ba`th Party, he supported Iran in its war against Iraq (1980-88) and he readily joined the U.S.-led alliance against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.

Assam, Mervyn (b. Feb. 1, 1938), foreign minister of Trinidad and Tobago (2000-01). He was also high commissioner to the United Kingdom (1987-90) and minister of trade and industry and consumer affairs (1995-2000).

Astorga (Gadea de Jenkins), Nora (b. 1948, Managua, Nicaragua - d. Feb. 14, 1988, Managua), Nicaraguan guerrilla. She was secretly active with the Sandinista National Liberation Front since 1969 and earned her reputation as a "Mata Hari" when on March 8, 1978, International Women's Day, she lured the deputy commander of Pres. Anastasio Somoza's National Guard, Gen. Reynaldo Pérez Vega, an alleged torturer and womanizer, to her room. When the general was stripped of his sidearms, three of her compañeros burst out of hiding, supposedly to kidnap, question, and then exchange him for prisoners; however, when he resisted, they killed him. He was later found wrapped in a Sandinista flag with a slit throat. Astorga later described the incident by saying, "I never felt guilty... It was something you had to do for revolutionary justice. He had killed so many. He was a monster." She escaped to a Sandinista training camp, became commander of a military squad, and caught the popular imagination as pictures of her wearing fatigues and carrying an AK-47 assault rifle appeared. After the Sandinistas took power in July 1979, she was appointed chief special prosecutor for the trials of some 7,500 members of Somoza's National Guard. In 1984 the U.S. refused to accept her appointment as ambassador to Washington because of her involvement in the death of General Pérez Vega, who had been a CIA "asset." She served as deputy foreign minister from 1984 until becoming Nicaragua's chief delegate to the United Nations in March 1986. In the latter post she was instrumental in winning Security Council support for the World Court decision calling U.S. aid to the contras illegal. She returned to Nicaragua because of illness in January 1988.

Asturias (Amado), Rodrigo, also known as Gaspar Ilom (b. Oct. 30, 1939, Guatemala City - d. June 15, 2005, Guatemala City), Guatemalan rebel leader and politician; son of Miguel Ángel Asturias. In the 1980s, as leader of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), he helped unite four leftist guerrilla groups to fight a string of brutal military-led dictatorships. The rebel leader lived many years in exile in Mexico and used the nom de guerre Gaspar Ilom after an Indian peasant hero in his father's novel Men of Maize. (He once sent a message from the field on a small piece of paper which was then rolled up, stuffed into a cigarette emptied of its tobacco, and smuggled via Mexico to the novelist in exile in Spain. It read simply: "The Men of Maize have turned into fighters," and was signed Gaspar Ilom.) The war ended with peace agreements signed by the government and the guerrillas in 1996; the URNG turned into a political party. But despite his almost legendary status, the leader credited with bringing Guatemala's Maya Indians into the civil war failed to unite the left in peacetime. When he ran as URNG candidate for president in elections in 2003, he won less than 3% of the vote.